It will bring together more than 1000 industry leaders from across the pharma, biotech, academia and vendor communities to discuss future opportunities for novel therapeutic discovery.

University of Liverpool’s Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, one of the country’s leading clinical experts, will be one of the main speakers at the flagship event, speaking on drug safety in drug development.

Dr Peter Simpson, director of the N8 Research Partnership, which is partnering with ELRIG, and who co-chaired last year’s Drug Discovery conference, said: “I’m absolutely convinced that bringing the whole community of academia, SMEs and major companies together truly fosters innovation and collaboration.

“It is wonderful to be returning to Liverpool and ideal that this event is returning to the North, a region where Health Innovation is highlighted as a major economic capability. Great advancement will come from quality research insights, informal discussions, and networking, to the benefit the drug discovery and life science communities.”

The six main sessions will cover: Innovations In Chemistry; Oncology and Immunology; Innovations in Predictive and Translational Models; Assay Development, Screening and Emerging Technologies; Coming Closer to the Patient – Cells and Genes in Therapy and Diagnostics; and Target Identification and Validation.

The conference will also explore innovative technologies and approaches that can be used to overcome drug development challenges.

Steve Rees, Chair of ELRIG and VP of Screening Sciences and Sample Management at AstraZeneca, said: “Typically attracting 1200 attendees, the Drug Discovery meeting provides a unique opportunity for scientists from academia, biotech, pharma and the vendor community to hear world leading speakers describe advances in target identification and preclinical drug discovery.

“We are delighted to bring our tenth anniversary meeting to Liverpool and look forward to welcoming scientists from the N8 Universities to the meeting.”

There are still free delegate places remaining and during the mid-morning and lunchtime break there will be the chance to view relevant exhibits, vendors and poster displays.

Connect

Delivering world class concerts, family, comedy and sporting events, Echo Arena Liverpool is one of the most prestigious entertainment venues in the UK and is a proud part of the ACC Liverpool family.

The addition of Exhibition Centre Liverpool to existing venues Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre makes The ACC Liverpool Group family the only purpose-built, interconnected arena, convention centre and exhibition centre in Europe.

TicketQuarter is a full service ticketing agency set up by the team at ACC Liverpool, offering a complete end-to-end ticketing service for the entire events industry.

BT Convention Centre, part of The ACC Liverpool Group, is a unique award-winning conference venue that includes a 1,350 seat auditorium, dining space for a 1,800-head banquet, 18 multi-sized meeting rooms, is interconnected to the 11,000 capacity Echo Arena and an 8,100m2 Exhibition Centre.